“Fire is inspirational” said Richard Pryor. He of course was referring to surviving a freebasing incident that had gone awry. And, though I did not set myself ablaze – I feel the same way about a sudden unexpected fire. Recently, the faulty electrical system in our dryer set the laundry room on fire. It was minor, as house fires go, but rocked me to the core nonetheless.My son was sleeping at the time. I was rushing around, about to leave for work. If I hadn’t noticed the smoke – I shudder to think of what could have happened. We were mere minutes away from not only losing the entire house but so much more. As it was we only lost things. We are incredibly lucky. We have each other and we have our home

We also have a HUGE mess! Thanks to an open floor plan and my penchant for leaving doors and cupboards open – much of our belongings were covered in a sticky, dusty grey film. After much discussion with the insurance adjuster, we decided to hire professional cleaners for some of the work but would do the majority of the cleaning ourselves. The good news is, the entire first floor will also be repainted. The bad news is, I am doing most of that myself too. I was excited to paint, at first, and filled with inspiration for every room. After the 4th room out of 10 total areas it started to feel more like a never ending problem than a super fun project. It did inspire me to try to be as earth friendly as possible during the whole fire recovery process. It is pretty easy to be green when life is running smoothly but my greenness has been known to drop on the priority list when life gets hard. The entire summer has been difficult and I have been slacking more and more. I saw this as an opportunity to get back on track. I had hoped to minimize waste and limit the use of nasty chemicals as much as possible. I am determined to use my go-to natural cleaners where I can. That didn’t quite work out in the laundry room. Baking soda couldn’t touch the black soot that was starting to penetrate the sheetrock. We had to go with a pretty nasty chemical that the fire marshal recommended. I put my green efforts into high gear after that to offset any bad vibes we were generating – starting with the recycling system. My old system had me separating everything into bags in the laundry room and tossing recyclables on the floor when the bags got too full. Not a great plan. The image of firemen trampling over cans and bottles as well as flammable paper bags is forever etched into my brain. Since my county only requires separation of fiber from containers – I put only two bins under my sink along with reusable bags. I make a trip to the recycling center every other week. So far so good. My green cleaners have been surprisingly effective in much of the house. It is amazing what vinegar, baking soda, borax and elbow grease can do. Cornstarch is quite little wonder too! It really puts a shine on glass and mirror – two things that are in great abundance in my house. Each time I discover a new cleaning challenge I hit the internet in search of the most echo-friendly solution. I have come across some great information like this link for cleaning leather furniture at DIY Life: http://www.diylife.com/2010/05/05/the-daily-fix-how-to-clean-leather-furniture/ . Note the caution to seek a professional cleaner if you are unsure about any of their methods. Our couch is 9 years old and a bit weathered already so I feel comfortable trying their advice.

Why do I have all of these?

Fire is scary but some good has come from it. When it was happening all I could think of was my family and our pets. Of course I didn’t want to lose the house but I gave no thought to material things. Full disclosure- my laptop was already in my car and my phone was in my pocket. I probably would have risked my life to save them. Upon reflection I have been able to see more clearly where my priorities should be. Al I cared about was that we were all alive and after that that we still had a home. Taking care of ourselves, each other and where we live should be pretty high on our lists. Taking care of who and what I love and eliminating what distracts me from those priorities is the plan. In the coming months I hope to share the impact of that on my life. For now, I vow to slow down and not be in such a rush that I make careless choices. I also vow to never again leave the house with the dryer running. Be Careful out there!greenjanie

I even told my friends to take a look at your blog and in fact your blog is already bookmarked on my computer. Hope to see more of this.

Reply

greenjanie

12/21/2012 11:17:10 pm

Thank you! You don't know how much I appreciate that! My recent post is different but I will get back to my usual stuff after the new year. I welcome any ideas or suggestion you may have. Thank you again!

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